Nature vs. “Not-nature”

In the article “The Walking Dead”, I see what I believe is a flawed perspective. Stewart Brand’s comment that there is a “huge hole in nature” carries the implication that humans are somehow outside of nature. That is totally untrue; we are a part of nature. The fact that we can have such a great effect over the rest of nature does not remove us from it. If we cause extinctions — even our own — we’re simply making our contribution to the ongoing evolution of the world. And if it’s our own extinction that we cause, well, we’re clearly not the fittest. I suspect that, in the end, someone will start reviving extinct species, and we will see whether they fit back in their niche or push out current species, which could ultimately include us. Leaving any morality aside, from an evolutionary standpoint we shouldn’t do this; after all, isn’t our survival supposed to be the driving force? Sadly, history seems to demonstrate that we’re not too good at that. It always seems to come back to this: if it can be done, do it.